E-bay browsing free on 3 - but it's cost me on day 1 !

susanthunt

Hi,
have scoured messages to see if there's any other ref to this but haven't found one.
However, wanted to post the message to see if anyone else has had this problem.
I've been with 3 for about 3 years now - not brilliant coverage in some places but good where I live and no real problems.
Two eldest daughters are at uni - and suffering from pay-as-you-go so both signed upto 3 at the weekend on £20 pm deal - 2000 free mins between 3 etc. Sounded great.
Manager in shop stressed that you can now browse ebay, use facebook etc FREE through planet 3. Bidding on ebay would cost because you move to ebay site but it wd warn you before you moved to a paying page.
One daughter tried to browse ebay today. kept disconnecting, page said too large to load etc etc. Then checked her usage and found an internet charges fee of £8 - later went up to £10. rang customer service and got cut off after 10 mins (both phones are purple Sony E and both seem to be cutting off a lot although mine is okay)
3 said they could refund £5 as goodwill gesture but if you use internet other than through planet 3 you will be charged. stressed it WAS through planet 3. He said must have gone to pay-for page like yahoo - but she hadn't.
Said technical dept would be able to see which sites she'd accessed and sort the poor connection problems.
Technical guy said you are charged for any internet access including browsing ebay. We asked if he could record the call and say that again since the leaflet with the phone and shop advertising said you can browse for free and advertising says you'll always be warned before going to a page that charges.
He then switched us to another guy who said technical dept can't discuss anything relating to charges but gave reset instructions for phone that should sort the connection issues. Said we would need to dispute charges with customer services. They say they can't tell us which websites we're supposed to have accessed but assured us they must be charged- for pages !
Said will have to wait for the bill and then dispute the charges and then get in touch with their "recalculations" dept to sort it out because they should be able to see which pages were accessed.
This stinks - how can you ever use planet 3 without worrying about getting charged - especially if they say when you call that they can't see which sites you've accessed. my daughter didn't even get good reception for ebay - it kept disconnecting. (She has browsed ebay on my mobile through planet 3 and I've never been charged so we just don't understand this.)
she wants to return phone and cancel contract but the booklet says no returns if not bought online and even then you must not have used the phone.
3 said they had "extremely high volumes of calls" today and tonight - I suggested it was all the thousands of people being charged for their "free" ebay and facebook services!
any other experiences on this?
3 claim she must have accessed internet through internt browser icon and not planet 3. She can't even find any way of getting internet without choosing the planet 3 button!
thanks
susan

Helix

I have never had a problem with getting charged for accessing eBay on 3. Its always been free. I don't know where you heard about facebook being free though. It comes up on Planet 3 but makes it clear it is a paid for service and suggests you get a bundle if you are going to use it a lot.

nellytheelephant

I've seen 3's adverts about Facebook being free x

firefly5

I just got charged nearly £10 for acessing this "free" service. The cs guy I spoke to was an idiot and didn't understand what I was asking. I think it happened because I got cut off and went back to the 'last web address', but nowhere on planet 3 does it say that you'll be charged if you access it through the normal browser, it just says free to all 3 customers.